Holiday is very important and integral part of modern lives. Going to a distant place with completely different surroundings puts you in a different mood. Travelling broadens your mind and invigorates your soul. But often, lot of effort has been put towards planning a holiday. This creates problems at times. Yes, I hear you say planning is important. I agree and I do that too.
The usual conventional holiday goes something like this. You jump onto the internet and research the place you are visiting — weather, what to see, where to stay and what to do. You do the best you can and book everything in advance. Then, you wait for that day to arrive. The anticipation keeps you going. By the time you reach the day of travel, you have almost entirely lived your holiday in your mind. You have a fair idea how your holiday is going to be like.
Now this is all good but it can be problematic at times. By doing this pre-planning, unintentionally, you have built up certain expectations about the place and everything about the trip. And then, when you reach at your destination, all it takes is — may be bad weather or a mediocre hotel room to spoil your mood. The gap between your expectation and what is — will make you feel disappointed and your mind will focus only on negatives.
So, why not take off without any planning?
We just recently did a short weekend getaway. The place wasn’t decided until early Saturday morning. I hadn’t looked at the weather forecast and accommodation wasn’t pre-booked either. On Saturday morning, we decided to embark on a journey to high country Victoria. The weather forecast was screaming — “Rain all weekend”. But we couldn’t care less. As we were about to reach the town of “Bright”, I pulled out my phone and started looking for the accommodation. There was only one motel room available in the whole region which I grabbed without wasting time. There was no other option nor time to do the research.
Over the next 2 days, we had the best time! The motel was at beautiful location. We had great hosts John and Maureen who just lived next to the Motel. Maureen cooked us delicious breakfast and served in the room. The weather was in our favour too. It did not rain AT ALL despite the weather forecast suggested heavy rain. We thoroughly enjoyed beautiful scenery with colorful autumn leaves. Surprisingly, we also came to know that “Autumn Festival” was ON during the same weekend! We did not know about this earlier. The streets of “Bright” were bustling with local markets and live music. We had a wonderful time. On Saturday night, it was very cold and I was craving for some spicy Indian food. We stayed in the town of “Mount Beauty” and were pretty sure that there was no Indian restaurant in the town. But guess what — we found out from the Motel reception that a new Indian place has just recently opened for business in “Mount Beauty”!!! I was elated and my taste buds were quenched with yummy food.
The whole trip kept surprising us. Nothing was planned but everything worked out. Eventually, the forecast also turned out right — but only when we entered into the outskirts of Melbourne while coming back! We came back home being refreshed, recharged and rejuvenated.
Obviously, this might not be feasible every time depending on your personal situation and for long distance/international holidays. However, it can certainly be tried on shorter weekend getaways.
It is much more exciting and adventourous when you allow events to unfold rather than planning every event and have certain expectations about it.
Have a great unplanned holiday ☺
